VIEWS FROM THE ATTIC

Many of you will have had a Viewmaster as a kid, the plastic toy binoculars you put card discs into to view 3D images.
Probably not so many of you had one of these gizmo's above - a slide viewer.
This was more of a photographers specialist gadget than a toy, allowing you to view photographic slides through a magnified lens. You'd pop the slide into a slot in the top, it would light up inside and you were able to see the slides like ordinary photographs, something you couldn't do with the titchy slides on their own.
This is our family one dating from around the late 60's/early 70's - a Halina Paramount Viewer to give it its full name.
This, along with a big bundle of original slides were found in our attic just a few years ago, after having been hiding there for over 3 decades. I actually thought the slides had been thrown out many years ago because I hadn't seen them since the 70's, so it was a great surprise when they resurfaced after all that time.
It was this recent find that after viewing the content, I thought would be worthwhile sharing on the Internet, because these were the original slides that contained those 70's aerial shots around Dundee, the David Bowie concert, Victoria Road demolition an so on.
So here - many still in their original Agfacolor box - are some of the slides that kick-started me into doing Retro Dundee in the first place.

AAGA CD - NOW AVAILABLE

Now that Christmas time is closing in on us all once again, some of you will no doubt be wondering what to buy off the record tokens you get. Problem solved - treat yourself to this AAGA CD.

The compilation called "The World Makes Me Sad Sometimes", on Rightback Records, is the first time a collection of AAGA's original 80's material has been given an official release, and so a good opportunity to hear for yourself why Factory Records wanted to showcase the band in Manchester at the time.

You'll know by now that I have featured many of  AAGA's cassettes on Retro, all displaying their homemade covers, well keeping the self assembly process going, here above is the CD cover when it was still work in progress at the design stage. The cover visuals were a joint effort by Mike Kane's daughter & son, with the AAGA logo the work of Dundee graphic artist, Nick Wright.

It will of course be available on iTunes and so on.

Finally, below is another reminder of the band's sound, this time from a gig at the Tayside Bar in 1984 -  catching AAGA in one of their more mellow moods.

A gig I was at too!

Thanks to Craig and Brian.

DUNDEE COMPILATION CASSETTE - 1982

Well I've raided just about every tune from this cassette during the course of doing Retro Dundee, but I haven't actually done a feature on the tape itself - so better late than never.

Here is then the extremely rare Dundee Compilation Cassette which was made available locally in the early 80's, and was put together by AAGA Productions.

Musically it consisted of a mixture of alternative, pop, rock, new wave, electronic and experimental - and stating the rather obvious, all the acts were from Dundee.

Rockpile and the Tayside Bar were the places to go to grab a copy.

A review of the cassette was published in local fanzine, The Voice, in 1982, which is the 2nd item above and was given a track-by-track assessment. If you want to read the large version, just give it a click.

While I'm here, I'll squeeze one more track out of it.

Here below is Waiter Waiter with a catchy wee song called "Discipline". 

BOO-HOORAY - G.I.G.O McGURK - 1984

Boo Hooray have made a couple of appearances on Retro already, those tracks having been taken from the early 80's Dundee Compilation Cassette, a local unofficial homemade product.

This record here however, called "G.I.G.O McGurk", was the bands official release, recorded at Wilf Smarties studio in Edinburgh and brought out as a 12 inch single in 1984.
Boo Hooray didn't exactly pander to pop chart formulas mind you, so this is probably the band at their most commercial.
Line-up on this recording were - Gerry Mitchell, bass + talk - Alison Mitchell, singing - Scott Gowans, guitars - Brem, sax - and the drums were of the programmed variety.
Quite an offbeat mixture stirring around in the blender - Magic Band style guitar - Manhattan Transfer sounding harmonies and Byrne "Once In A Lifetime" fashion talkover.
A captivating little cocktail!!
Boo Hooray were also collaborators on a variety of projects that became part of Dundee's Attic Archive. Included in the Archive are Boo Hooray live recordings, Erasmic Superfoam audios and various Mike Kane related artifacts, all of which have recently been passed on to the Dundee Central Library Social History Dept.
In fact, this record came courtesy of the Attic Archive, more of which will be dipped into over the next few days.

STREET LEVEL - SAMPLE TRACK - 1981

Street Level were a band who emerged on the local music scene at the start of the 80's.
Their style of energetic pop combined with a good sense of humour had the band generally well liked. They certainly played plenty gigs around town anyway, as well as do their fair share of shows elsewhere around the country.
Line-up was - Callum McHardy, guitar - Jackie McPherson, vocal and occasional keyboard - Murray Tosh, bass - Bob Butler, drums.
After a good run, they called a halt in summer '81, with Jackie cropping up a short while later in an act called Just Little Boys, before she then went on to become more well known as the TV presenter/newsreader AKA Jackie Bird.
Meanwhile, Murray headed off for life down in Oz around that time too - and both Callum & Bob have since gone on to play in an ABBA tribute band.
Reversing back to the 1981 period, the photo above is of Jackie doing her thang on stage, and you can just catch a glimpse of Murray as well.
Also around this time, Street Level managed to get some tracks down on cassette, a sample of which you can hear below.
The track is called "Security City", a lively wee tune that may very well take some of you back to the old Tayside Bar & Galleon days!
Big thanks to Derek.

FRICTION - AIRCRASH - 1979

Friction weren't a full-on ska band, as their previous track up on Retro Dundee demonstrates, but on some of their songs, they definitely had one foot in ska while keeping the other one firmly in indie.
However, this amusing track below - "Aircrash" - which was recorded in November 1979, has the band almost in total 2-Tone mode. It also throws some light on why they were often categorised as a ska band.
So make sure you don't envisage Friction bopping about wearing pork-pie hats and braces - they weren't like that at all!
Big thanks to Scott.

THE PRIMITIVES ON FILM - 1969

Elsewhere on Retro Dundee I have mentioned the various musical escapades of 2 local musicians who often worked together - keyboard player, Mike Fraser, and drummer Robbie McIntosh.

Well R&B pop outfit, The Primitives, was one such band in which Mike & Robbie teamed up with, this being after their stint in The Senate. Although The Primitives were a British act, it was in Italy where they were best known and where oor twa spent their time with them, the band having an alternating residency at the fab & famous Piper Club in Rome, a venue visited by top name bands.

It was during this groovy time in their life that Mike & Robbie ended up in a movie, an Italian film made in 1969 called "Pensiero d'amore", footage of which I have below.

But before that, a quick word on the above photos...

Top one is a film shot of The Primitives.

Next one down with all the dancers is another film shot.

Third image was taken at a live gig.

And the last picture is a general publicity shot.

So, settle down, cut yourself a slice of pizza and enjoy this rare movie scene below.

To see Mike on keyboards and Robbie on drums, you'll need to ignore singer Mal, all the dolly birds, as well as the Mafia, and just concentrate on the background action!

I don't recall this movie showing at The Gaumont!!

Big thanks to Mike Fraser and Mac.

ANDY LOTHIAN ORCHESTRA - LIVE - 1960'S

In March 2009, I put a record up on Retro Dundee by Andy Lothian. This was a traditional Scottish tune that featured his violin skills.

Andy, however, was equally known for his big band sound, his orchestra being the resident band at the Palais for over 3 decades. In fact, he ended up owning the venue!

We are talking ballroom dancing music styles here, the orchestra supplying the tempo for the dancefloor with a mixture of latin, jazz and pop.

In 1946, his band was heard all around the UK when his orchestra was broadcast live from the Palais on BBC radio a few times.

Andy kept the big band going in the Palais up to around 1970, then bowed out to make way for the start of the disco era.

Below is a rare recording live at the Palais itself, from the mid 60's and showcasing the full orchestra sound - no lead violin.

The line-up includes - J. Couper - D. Gold - J. Croft - R. Bronson - G. Cully - B. Cooper - C. Fotheringham and C. Coats.

So go grab your partner and swirl around the room to this track below - Duke's classic..."The A Train".

Many thanks to Carolyn.

THE BLUSH ON VINYL - 1982

There is already a track by The Blush up on Retro Dundee which was taken from the "Dundee Compilation Cassette" and so was not really considered an official release, technically speaking.

This one above, however, was the band's "official" release, recorded at Wilf Smarties studios and came out in 1982.

It is a double A-side - "A Look From Outside" & "Skipping", and when it was out it became a Radio Tay "Toe-Tapper", that is, it got played on the station, twice a day for 2 weeks!

In previous items about them on Retro, I have The Blush line-up as - Jeff Doran, vocal & guitar - Eddie Robertson, guitar - Steve Duncan, bass and Steve Aungle, drums.

If it's still the same team on this recording then most have adopted pseudonyms on the cover, and they have also recruited a keyboard player.

Should this be Steve Aungle we're hearing on drums, then just like yesterday's band, there is a connection with Billy Mackenzie because later, Steve went on to record with Billy.

Coincidentally, The Associates also recorded a track called "Skipping" in 1982, appearing on the "Sulk" album, but a totally different song.

This is the track I've opted for to tune into, it being a bit edgier than the flip side.

Quite a lengthy robust intro, but it does break into song...eventually!

S'PUNK FANZINE - 1979

Back in 1978 when Steve Grimmond and Craig Methven were still only in their mid teens, they started up this fanzine call S'PUNK (it's punk), dedicated to the punk scene and its kindred on the fringe.

This particular one above is issue 13 and came out in January 1979.

So quickly sifting through some of the pages I've put up on display...

On top is the front cover which has an image stating "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog".

The 2nd page down is the editorial intro, or idiotorial as they have it, cramming in a few words about the mag content, surrounded by the bands and subject matter for this issue.

Image 3 is a look back at their "Singles Of The Year" for 1978. Both list their personal top 10 and there is also a general S'Punk top 20.

Craig has gone for The Only Ones - "Another Girl, Another Planet".

Steve opted for Steel Pulse - "Ku Klux Klan".

4th page down is a mention of a gig that took place up at the Bowling Alley in Marketgait, the band being Punishment Of Luxury (Punilux for short). This includes a rather brief encounter with the band which soon became an aborted interview! There is also a mini review of the gig itself.

Lastly, we have 5 acts at 2 venues.

The upper 2 are for Richard Hell & The Voidoids and John Cooper Clarke, the support acts for Elvis Costello who played the Caird Hall on 14th January 1979.

Finally, a 3 band gig, this time at Bloomers in South Tay Street.

Support acts were Curfew and Straits, with The Skids being the main headliners.

S'Punk must be a contender for being one of Dundee's earliest fanzines I reckon, so it's a rare read, and if you want to view the pages in more detail, just click onto them to enlarge.

Big THANKS to Craig.

SWEET TV TIMES - 1982

This kinky wee publication called "Sweet TV Times" was given out at gigs when The Junkies were entertaining the masses.

Needless to say, it has a fair smattering of Junkies related items in amongst a large dollop of SM fetish kinda material.

Bypassing the rubber and whips for now though, I've plucked out this item above - The Junkies Family Tree - covering the time of their inception in mid 1978 up to the time of the mag, summer 1982.

The very first line-up of the band consisted of - Alison Burns, Al Hendrickx, Vince Piggot and Mike Kane - after that it branches off into 7 different variants.

It's easy to follow the sequence of changes, during which saw Vince and Alison leave - then return again. Drummers in particular didn't appear to have a very long shelf life it seems, and by the time we get to line-up #7 even Alan McGlone was getting in on the act!

Just give it a click to enlarge.

Thanks again to Jock.

OOR WULLIE RECORD - 1989

 

Can't remember this on Top Of The Pops - a tribute record to Oor Wullie.

DC Thomson trying to get into the singles charts with a song by The Buchans called "Wullie's Song", out on Wullie's own label too!

Available to buy at record shops or by post.

The mail order advert above was published in the local press in March 1989.

The b-side was a track called "The Rascal" and was performed by Saltcoats Harbour Band.

Wonder why they didn't get Dean & Dawn to record it?

Anyway, you'll all be dying to hear it no doubt - so then, check it out below.

TONY VINCENT - LIVE - 1964

 

Tony Vincent was actually born in London but moved to Dundee aged 11 in 1952.

He started singing aged 17, doing turns in local dancehalls.

Then he turned professional aged 18 when forming local band, The Men Of Mystery (aka The Mystery Men).

He followed that up by touring UK in the Basil Kirchin Band.

When in Ayr, Tony won a UK singing contest, with a recording contract as top prize which lead to him releasing his solo single "I'm Never Going To Fall In Love Again" in 1961.

Tony was performing solo and sang with a variety of bands throughout 1961 & 1962 such as The Giants, The Monarchs and The Men Of Mystery (who reformed in Oct 1961).

The Men Of Mystery later became resident band on Scottish TV series "Teenbeat" in 1963 with Tony also having a solo spot on the show.

Tony & The Men Of Mystery had a successful tour of South Africa in 1963 and when they came back, they became Rolf Harris's backing band when Rolf toured Scotland for 2 weeks.

Tony also appeared in the band The Teenbeats, who were one of the support acts during The Beatles tour of Scotland in '63.

The Men Of Mystery & Tony then split and Tony went to Hamburg in 1963 where he teamed up with The Giants again.

As a result, The Giants, with Tony, released a single and a live album in 1964, recorded at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg.

After that busy start to his career, he seemed to then just settle for entertaining around the local pubs.

This live album track here, called "Matchbox", captures the gig atmosphere pretty well...

RECORDED DELIVERY - 1970'S

Part of the fun of collecting vinyl records is that moment when you come into possession of a rare recording, and this one here is so rare, it's the only one in existence.

Not that it contains a wonderful song mind you, no, if you recall the item I put up in March 2011 about railway recording booths, then this is an example of the end product.

It dates from the 1970/71 period and was recorded in a booth in Broughty Ferry.

The Calibre Auto Recording was pressed on heavy duty vinyl and is a 6 inch disc rather than the standard 7 inch.

As you may expect from the cheapest recording studio around, the quality of sound is pretty poor, but hey, it's only supposed to be an audio postcard not a chart hit, the idea being that you pop into the station booth with thought of sending someone a message.

So, the background behind the duo on the disc - you know regular Retro contributor Craig Methven, well his brother Jack and his mate Derek, after a couple of pints, popped into the booth to record a message for their fiancees, Judi & Barbara, in Canada. At the end of the day, however, they decided not to send it, but Jack & Derek went over to Canada in 1971 and married the girls in 1972, where they have remained since.

You'll be able to hear a wee Dundee United song at the start but the content after that is a bit hit and miss.

Still a rare wee gem though, and a big thanks to Craig for passing it on.

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - LIVE

Around about 1985ish, St Andrew & The Woollen Mill brought out a cassette that chronicled the history of the band. Done in the style of a mock documentary, it had interviews, fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes shenanigans, studio recordings and live recordings. It was put together really well, lasts an hour, and of course being comedy material, is funny all the way through. It's also loaded with references from the early 80's Dundee music scene, as well as mentioning quite a few well known places around town.
To give you a flavour of the content, here below is a recording capturing some of the fun of their live performances.
As a wee reminder, and to help put you in the picture, the mince roll caravan was up the Hulltoon.
The rest should be self explanatory.

Big thanks to Jim.

COLOSSUS - LAST DEMO - 80'S

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a demo track by Colossus that featured Gordon Band on vocals, dating from the late 70's.
Well this is another track of theirs, this time from the early 80's, and in fact comes from what turned out to be, the bands last demo session. The same line-up as before except Fran Docherty has taken over the singer's spot.
So here is a tune called "Anything You Want" - the first 90 seconds or so has a kind of Canterbury vibe to it, intricate interchanges knotting the intro together, before unravelling itself into a rocking groove that churns along like a tag match between Uriah Heep v Rush!
It's a bit of a bruiser!
Big thanks to Ewen.

JOHN MORAN - HOME & ABROAD

When John Moran began singing in Dundee in the early 60's, he opted to have a pop star kind of name, and became known as Johnny Hudson (top pic). He soon teamed up with established local band The Hi-Four and they in turn changed their name to the Johnny Hudson Hi-Four.

The band toured around Scotland and were the first Dundee pop group to work in Germany, approximately the same time as The Beatles famously resided there.
The Johnny Hudson Hi-Four hung out with guys like Long John Baldry, Willie Wilson, Tony Sheridan, Bobby Patrick and a young Alex Harvey! This experience in Germany was rewarded in 1963 on the band's return when they found out they were to be supporting The Beatles in the Caird Hall.
Quite a high to finish on - because in 1964 the band were transformed into the Poor Souls.
I've already written a couple of items about the Poor Souls on Retro so no need to repeat the info here, but around 1967, after a couple of record releases, the band split up.
However, it wasn't to be the end of the Poor Souls name because at the tale end of the 60's when John Moran moved to Canada, he resurrected the Poor Souls name in Toronto, albeit, obviously, with a completely different line-up. This incarnation of the Poor Souls released a 7 inch single on the Canadian Quality label in 1970 - A side "Lookin' Around", B side "Scarecrow".
John also made a solo album of self penned material the same year, a track from which you can hear below. The song is called "Something You Said", and although it dates from 1970, it does sound like the kind of thing that was popular in the UK in the mid 70's. Wings meets Gerry Rafferty! In fact if this had been released in the UK back then, I reckon it could have been a top ten chart contender.
See what you reckon.
Big thanks to Mac.

ROCKPILE'S MISSING ITEMS

Rockpile, in Westport, was a popular Record Exchange shop that cropped up on the scene in the early 80's.

In the mid 80's, I used to visit them regularly as one who sold them records when I was gradually offloading the mountain of vinyl I had amassed.

Well now it's confession time - 2 of the albums I passed onto them were missing a couple of items!

The top image is a set of art prints done by Peter Schmidt that were a free gift with an album by Eno called "Before And After Science" which I bought in 1977. The set of four 12 inch prints came in a kind of presentation folder in the record sleeve.

The other photo is of a free bonus album that I got with a record released by Bill Nelson in 1981 called "Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam".

It turned out that the free album "Sounding The Ritual Echo" was one I played more often than the actual official LP it was with, so just as I had decided to hold on to the art prints when I sold the Eno album to Rockpile, I also opted to keep the free Bill Nelson album, considering it too good to sell!

I do remember peeling the "INCLUDES FREE ALBUM" sticker off the record sleeve before innocently handing over the "Quit..." album!

So if anyone can recall buying either of those 2 albums out of Rockpile - well, I still have your stuff!

If you want to claim the missing items, you'll need to show me your receipt as proof of purchase!

Meanwhile, especially for the person who missed out on it, here's a wee taster of one of the tracks from the bonus album, a track called "My Intricate Image". All the "experimental" tracks on the LP were recorded using faulty equipment Bill had at home!

"Sounding The Ritual Echo" was officially released in it's own right on CD later in the 80's, I think I'm right in saying.

 

THE MEGAZONES SINGLE - 1980

When I posted a feature about The Megazones on Retro last November, I mentioned that they had released a single in 1980, but I didn't have a copy of it in my collection.
Well lo & behold, a couple of days later, a copy of it was sent to me, straight from the vault of Megazones main man himself, Jim Farrell.
So here it is below - the A-side of the record "Never Been So Lonely" - an upbeat, tuneful piece of pop with a slight hint of Split Enz, The Cars and The Beatles swirling around inside.
In the November feature, the drummer named in The Megazones gig review was Kev Devlin, however, on this recording the guy behind the kit is Kenny Farquharson, who later went on to have a very successful career as a journalist and is presently Deputy Editor of Scotland On Sunday.
Big thanks to Jim and Craig.

DEADBEAT - FIRST ISSUE - 1982

It's good fun looking back at "first issues" to get a reminder of how they once looked before they became more established, and so here's #1 of Deadbeat fanzine, given away free in August 1982.

The mag's debut was printed out of just one A3 sized sheet folded into quarters, but eventually it became available in a 20 page A5 sized magazine format, which later would cost a whopping 10p!

It's lifespan was 1982 - 1986.

Although it was distributed around the country, the mag's content was generally based around the Scottish alternative music scene, with Dundee getting sizeable coverage.

One reason why Dundee was represented so often was because Deadbeat's main contributors, Alan McEwan (aka Vinny Bee) was at St.Andrew's University and so would often socialise in Dundee and Hilary Smart (previously featured on Retro), went to Art College and lived in town.

They still had to do plenty of whizzing around Scotland to collect material mind you!

An example of how well known Deadbeat had become around the UK, was the time when it was runner-up to Viz on the John Peel show in a feature on alternative publications!

So getting back to the first issue, one Dundee related item in it was the article above announcing the cancellation of The Associates tour. The piece didn't quite fit the xerox machine properly as you can see, but these wee teething problems were soon sorted and later they went on to have one issue which gave away a free flexi-disc, then afterwards there was a series of compilation cassettes featuring demo recordings made by Scottish bands.

Alan has quite recently started up a blog documenting Deadbeat which can be found at this link - http://www.deadbeatfanzine.blogspot.com/

The blog's content is accompanied by lots of amusing "behind the scenes" stories, with, needless to say, Dundee getting a mention quite a lot.

He's also gonna put all those rare recordings that appeared on the cassettes, up on Youtube, so's we can all catch up with them after all that time.

There is even talk of a Deadbeat party later this year to celebrate 25 years of it's death!!

So plenty to keep your eye on throughout 2011.

The good news for Retro is that Alan sent over a few original issues of Deadbeat, so watch out for some more past items on the local music scene cropping up here too!

Big thanks to Al.